Garden City, N.Y. - After seeing an 11-point halftime lead turn into a late five-point deficit, the Adelphi University men's basketball team rallied with less than two minutes left in regulation to go on to defeat the Warriors of Nyack College in overtime, 78-72, on Wednesday night inside the Center for Recreation and Sport.

For Adelphi (9-1), Manny Suarez tallied a "double-double" behind a team-high 17 rebounds while adding 11 points and five blocks for the second straight evening. With his ninth of a team-high 19 points on the evening, Anthony Libroia became the 33^rd member of Adelphi's 1,000 point club, while classmate Ryan DeNicola tallied 12 of his 14 total points in the first half. Robert Tyler tallied a game-high 23 points for Nyack (3-5).

Eight points from DeNicola in the first five minutes helped the Panthers claim an early 10-6 lead. A pair of treys from Jaron Smith and Tyler put the Warriors back on top, but a 9-2 scoring run capped by a Jack Laffey three cemented a 19-14 lead at the 10:38 mark. From that point, the Adelphi offense put together a 14-5 scoring run - ended by a Conor McGuinness trey with 3:26 remaining -- to lead 33-19. The double-figure advantage for the Panthers held up for the duration of the half, but a Jaron Smith three-pointer with less than a minute to go shaved the margin to 11, 37-26.

The second half was a mirror image of the first, as a 17-5 scoring run for the visitors gave them their first lead in over 20 minutes, 43-42, at the 15:17 mark. The Panthers continued to trail by a margin as much as five in the second half, trailing for the final time at 62-57 with 3:16 remaining.On consecutive trips down the floor, a Libroia layup made it a one possession game, and a Laffey triple from the right side tied the score at 62-62 with 1:22 remaining on the clock.

After a turnover from both sides in the final minute, Adelphi had the ball under its own basket with just 1.1 seconds on the clock, but Laffey's jumper rimmed out to send the contest to overtime. Suarez opened the extra minutes with a tip-in off a DeNicola miss, before Libroia and Coffey sank consecutive threes to open up an eight-point, 70-62 lead. Although Nyack pulled to within four twice, the Panthers went a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line to seal their seventh straight win.

The Panthers return to action on Saturday, December 12 when they head up to Albany to take on the College of Saint Rose in a 3:30 pm Northeast-10 contest.

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About Adelphi University Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past six seasons has collected 16 regular season conference titles, 21 tournament championships, 27 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 President's Cup twice (2013 and 2014), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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